death in vegas - satans circus
having fleshed out the bands last 2 albums with a whole host of rock star egos the duo of richard fearless and tim holmes, were then asked to help out on production duties for oasis's forthcoming album. i wonder if this was the final straw that broke the camels back, and during these aborted sessions they realised that their passion for noises made by machines were far more compelling than pampering to the eternal desires of their human counterparts as this album has completely dropped all elements of the human voice.
instead, we now get a completely instrumental album featuring drawn out homages to kraftwerk, tangerine dream, and pil. SUBSEQUENTLY, the album has been dealt with harshly from some quarters, leading to them being dropped by their record label, and more favourably from others.
ok, there are the oh so obvious melodic lifts from kraftwerk ('zugaga'), the DRIFTING monotonic synth riffs, and the lack of any real variation throughout the 63 minutes, but having spent a week with the album as my accompaniment for train journeys i have come to love this album. the fact that the album has a consistency and a flow as opposed to a bunch of songs thrown together for the sake of a record label may have something to do with it, or, then again maybe its just that i spent a large portion of my adolescence drifting off into my own inner world whilst listening to the electronica from the german scientists tangerine dream and this album recalls those innocent days. i dont know.
this being death in vegaS, THEY HAVEN'T COMPLETELY ERADICATED THEIR PASSION FOR LAYERED NOISE, THERE ARE A COUPLE OF OLD SCHOOL SYNTH LEAD GOTH-ROCK MONSTERS BURIED at the end of the album, the superb 'anita berber', and 'head', IT'S JUST THAT THERE ARE QUITE A FEW TRACKS TO GET THROUGH prior to these familiar sounds. for example there is the opening ethereal ambience of 'heil xanex', where calm is subtly displaced by a massive jah wobble styled bassline and echoed noises, making the drawn out 7 minutes sound like the ambient experiments between pete namlook and bill laswell in 94. the simplistic, but completely gorgeous, synthetic movements of 'sons of rother' featuring delicate guitars - their first appearance i think on the album? the dirty electroclash-y grooves of 'reigen', 'kontroll' and the grand finale of the two full on rock band tracks as mentioned previously where they let rip and decide to rip into the dark moods of the 80's. before its all drawn to a close with the ambient noodlings of the somewhat interestingly titled 'come on over to our side softly softly'. a title that obviously indicates that richard and tim are very aware these sounds will indeed split their audience into 2 camps, ie those that understand their new path and enjoy the journey, and those that just want more paul weller.
i will admit, however, that on a sunny day, when all is well with the world, this album will not work quite as well as on a grey dark autumnal day. and yes, there are a couple of tracks that stretch the patience of the listener (hello 'canndy mckenzie'), but, overall i would much rather have an interesting new direction album from the lads as opposed to having to constantly try and outdo their previous guest star quotient. and, i suspect, that by withdrawing into their original sonic reference points they have indeed found themselves rejuvenated once more, and are probably a lot more happy with these end results.
also, i should mention, in case you didn't know, an an added incentive initial copies of the album features a complete concert recording from 2003 of all their previous 'classics' and is bloody excellent.